Al-Farabi ; Wednesday Evening

[necroslacker]

So, it was date night. And since it was Sam's idea, he'd picked the spot after getting some help with the language and the things offered from the hotel staff. And after some discussion, Sam had picked a small place that was both a place to eat, a place to look at art and a place to buy music. He thought it'd be Natalie's heaven and he figured he could enjoy it as well through her eyes.

He'd gotten himself dressed, told her minimal details about the place and was now standing outside the building with her hand in his hand. He still couldn't read the language so he glanced at her said, "You know enough to read any of this yet?"

Hopefully that meant she'd help him not order something with meat in it. Or something else just as gross.

[NFB and for zee girl]

Comments

[necroslacker]

"And what made you so anti American?" Sam wondered curiously. "Kinda judgmental to just hate a whole population."

[whenshewasnice]

"Country," Natalie corrected mildly. "I hated the country and what it stood for, not the population."

She hadn't given a rat's ass about the population, to be honest. Not past the Ingrams.

[necroslacker]

"What it stood for?" Sam asked, still curious. "What does it stand for?"

[whenshewasnice]

"You really have a problem with keeping to the right tense, don't you?" She glanced away, lifted a shoulder in a slight shrug. "Todd and his parents moved to the States."

She knew it was risky to bring that up, but at least he couldn't accuse her of shutting down on him, this time.

[necroslacker]

"Ah." Well, he was going to try and not get bent out of shape about this. Try. He got a bit of a break when the waiter brought their food over finally and they had to get that situated first.

"So." He took a sip of his drink. "What changed your mind?"

[whenshewasnice]

"Time heals all wounds," Natalie replied with just a hint of a sarcastic tone, her eyes down on her food. Looked to be about what she'dthought she was ordering. "I grew up. Moved on."

To a certain extent, anyway.

[necroslacker]

Yeah, he was kind of questioning that whole 'moved on' thing. He couldn't help it.

He tried not to sound skeptical when he said, "Glad that wound healed. It'd be kind of weird if it hadn't."

[whenshewasnice]

"Mm." Yep, she was going to do her best not to comment too much on that. It was so pointless to even think about it.

Her voice had a measured idle quality to it as she asked, "How's the food? No meat?"

[necroslacker]

"It's fine," he sighed, hearing that almost forced tone in her voice and feeling a little more sure that she hadn't moved on. There was also the whole thing where she hadn't agreed with his statement and all. That was...mood shifting.

He took a few bites of his food and fell silent, trying to figure out if he liked the dinner in front of him or not.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie picked at her food in silence, though that wasn't much of a break from the norm. She was quiet a lot, and didn't tend to act starved when faced with food.

Still. She knew things had tilted wrong, just now.

"Food's good," she offered after a while.

[necroslacker]

"Yep," Sam agreed quietly, twirling some pasta around on his fork and doing some thinking. It meant he was only half paying attention but he was doing enough to make sure he didn't miss things. "Food's...good."

It wasn't bad. He'd decided that after a few bites.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie suppressed a sigh. She wasn't even sure what she was wanting to sigh at, specifically, so all the more reason to hold it back. Another long moment went by with just the occasional clink of her knife and fork against the plate.

"Date took a turn for the not great, eh?"

[necroslacker]

"Guess so." He knew why his mood had shifted but he didn't want to get into that right now. He shrugged a shoulder. "Guess it was bound to happen sooner or later."

They'd been on a surprisingly good streak with their dates.

[whenshewasnice]

"What an optimistic view on this relationship," Natalie said but her tone was even. Because she kind of agreed, when it came to how well things had been going. How smooth. That could only ever last for so long. "Luck ran out."

[necroslacker]

"Yeah, that one statement is exactly how I view our relationship," Sam said sarcastically. "You caught me. I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Well, he kind of was. He hated to admit that but he wasn't sure how she really felt about him besides the whole 'liking' thing.

[whenshewasnice]

That kind of made two of them.

Natalie moved some of her food around on her plate, appetite waning somewhat. "God bless sarcasm."

[necroslacker]

Sam shook his head at that statement and looked down at his food. He wasn't going to say anything else lest he slip and actually tell her what was on his mind. It wouldn't go well though and he knew that.

He'd been almost sure that things were going well with them, that she actually cared for him on a level deeper than expected but he was back to being unsure again.

That sucked.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie thought this moment sucked in general, and was more or less making a mental note of never bringing up Todd again. Of course, she'd made that decision before and it hadn't stuck. But who knew.

She looked up, almost like she was going to say something (or possibly not, it was so hard to tell with her) but then she ended up calling the waiter over again instead. She wanted another drink.

A moment of Portuguese and French later and she'd managed to order Guarana. She'd seen it advertised all over, and it seemed like as good a time as any to try it.

... Okay so there were probably better times than this.

[necroslacker]

Sam glanced up at her when he heard her voice, almost hopeful that she'd been about to say something to him but she'd only gone to order a drink.

So, yeah. Yeah, that sucked and he bowed his head again, trying to turn off his ability to read things coming off of her. He didn't want to read something about him or the other guy or their relationship in general.

His mood had already been dampened.

[whenshewasnice]

There wasn't even that much coming off of her, really. Just general Natalie static, nothing much beyond some light surprise at getting to taste her new drink. And just a hint of discomfort at how things had turned out since she wasn't sure how to fix it.

She had things locked down rather well just now, apart from that, and she drank in silence.

[necroslacker]

It was apparently going to be a quiet rest of the date then since Sam knew why he was upset but wasn't broaching that himself. He thought it'd be obvious but she wasn't touching it either.

So, they were going to eat in silence for the rest of the night and after that, he'd probably just steer them back to the hotel and go to sleep.

Such a great date he'd planned. Swell.